


The Assistant Problem

by apocryphile



Category: West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-30
Updated: 2011-03-30
Packaged: 2017-10-17 09:38:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/175455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocryphile/pseuds/apocryphile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh makes another visit to Amy's office, after the two in The Women Of Qumar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Assistant Problem

**Author's Note:**

> Love and thanks to my woefully biased beta who probably should tell me to just delete the lot a bit more often.

Halfway back to the White House, he found himself slowing to a halt. He turned back, and then back again. Took a deep breath. Pulled his phone out. Returned it to his pocket, turned back one final time, and strode back the way he had come.

“Did you forget something, Mr Lyman?”

“Is she free? I have a followup question.”

“She’s free, but…”

“This’ll just take a minute.”

Trying to ignore the artwork, he walked back into Amy Gardner’s office. As he approached, she turned her back to him, walked over to her desk, and pulled herself up to sit on it.

“Joshua.”

“Amelia.”

“It’s been what, 20 minutes? You can’t get enough of me today.”

“Amy…”

She fixed him with a sardonic stare.

“Spill it, Special J. People are going to start talking.”

He smiled quickly.

“Funny you should say that. About the things they say, those people…”

He shifted his weight from foot to foot and looked at her pleadingly.

“If I was dating my assistant, would you have a problem?”

“Because you were dating someone, or because she’s your assistant?”

“Ah… I guess I’m curious about both.”

“Josh, I’m dating someone. I’d be glad if you were dating someone, too. You and me together would make you and Mandy Hampton look like a Jane Austen novel.”

She opted not to be offended at the look of relief on his face.

“Yeah.”

She hopped off the desk and slid into one of the chairs in front of it, patting the other. He complied.

“The fact that she’s your assistant…”

She paused, and he could tell she was making an effort to take him seriously.

“Josh, one of the reasons those of us who do admire you admire you so much is that no matter what I or anyone on the Hill or at the Post think, you have a problem that she’s your assistant. What I don’t understand is why you haven’t fixed that.”

“You mean fire her so I can date her?”

“Josh, from what I’ve heard, this thing, whatever it is, is mutual. Don’t you think she might save you the trouble, if you asked her?”

“I don’t want her to have to make that choice. That’s not fair. I’m the one holding all the cards here.”

“She could be reassigned?”

“For one thing, wherever she is in the West Wing, I’m still her boss, in the end. For another, even though she’s become… completely indispensible, she’s not formally qualified. She didn’t graduate. I chose to hire her to work for me directly but I can’t impose that on someone else. Which is one of the things that would make it look especially bad. If I did… date her.”

“You could marry her.”

He gaped at her.

“Amy, less than half an hour ago you and I were flirting like the world was ending, and now you’re telling me I should marry Donna?!”

“I’m just saying it’s something some people do. It would shut up a couple of the big constituencies you’re worried about offending.”

“Amy, I’ve never even kissed the woman. Well… once. When we won. But that’s it. We’ve both dated other people. I’m not going to propose to her out of the blue just to avoid gossip that’s already happening anyway.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“You really have only kissed her once?”

He nodded. He looked heartbroken.

“Josh, I didn’t think you cared what people thought about you.”

He shook his head slightly.

“I don’t. I care what people think about her.”

She blinked.

“Wow. You are flat on your ass in love with her.”

He ducked his head and rubbed his hair.

“Yeah,” he whispered.

“Does she know?”

“I think so… I dunno. We… there’s something there. Between us. I try to show her. Kinda… toe up to the line. I don’t want to freak her out.”

“She held it – and you, and from what I hear, most of the senior staff – together through you nearly dying and then nearly losing your mind and nearly losing your job. Give her some credit, Josh.”

He completely ignored her summation of the second worst year of his life.

“So you wouldn’t have a problem with me dating my assistant.”

She stood.

“At this point, Joshua, I have a bigger problem with you treating this woman, regardless of how much you obviously adore her, like she’s incapable of making her own decisions about her life and her career.”

He leaned back in the chair to look up at her, and then scrunched his eyes shut. Rubbing his forehead, he exhaled slowly.

“Shit.”

“No shit, Special J.”

“I can’t just go back there and fix this now, you know.”

Her face softened, and she sat back down next to him.

“I know. Remember it, though. And even though you did get it a bit muddled up in that huge head of yours, I get that you’re trying to be the good guy, here.”

He sighed.

“I… thanks, Amy. I…”

“Joshua. I don’t have the super secret sisterhood scrolls locked away behind that photo you won’t look at. You don’t need my blessing for this. If you knocked her up and screwed her over I’d burn the goddamn building down with your sorry ass still in it, but I think I can handle two consenting adults embarking on a discreet relationship.”

“Discreet… relationship.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I’m not telling you to go buy the girl a corsage for prom, Josh. Talk to her.”

“Right.”

“Want me to talk to her?”

He paled and stood up in a hurry.

“No. No. Amy, please don’t…”

She laughed and walked over to the door. Before opening it, she turned back to him.

“I’d just like it noted for the record, here, that you’ve just confirmed to me probably the second biggest piece of gossip in the West Wing, and I’ve been impeccably behaved.”

“What’s the first?”

“CJ and Danny Concannon. Now that, I have a problem with.”

He smiled.

“You’re OK there. CJ had a problem too.”

“God, you guys are boring. Now get outta here.”

He paused, and gave the huge black and white print on the wall a long appraising stare. Then, with a half smile and a quick squeeze of her hand, he walked out.

**Author's Note:**

> Read about the one time he kissed her, when they won, [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/175457).


End file.
